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According a Times article, TiVo plans to begin selling reports about its customers' viewing habits. In retrospect, this development was inevitable; Gothamist is surprised it even took this long. TiVo would probably argue that by selling out its customers' viewing habits, it will actually improve the quality of the television programming that they recieve. But that sure sounds like Darth Vader logic to us- reasoning that could only be produced by the dark side of the force.
The market for TiVo's data is going to be huge - even though TiVo households still number less than a million, the information produced by the devices is extremely granular. It can answer questions advertisers and programming executives have been obsessing about for years, by recording when viewers hit the pause, fast forward, and rewind buttons on their TiVo remotes. So soon executives will know which of the friends on Friends is the most popular, and which ones should be killed off immediately.
In related TiVo news, Ari Fleisher apparently uses his TiVo to control the world. [Via Anil]
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Hmm, I wonder how "granular" the initial pimped data will be. I refuse to take the time to read the linked article, so I will just go ahead and assume it won't be too detailed, something like; "viewer watched The Daily Show and nothing else all week."...
According to David Pogue's NYT column from Thursday, you can opt-out of Tivo's data-collection. " you can opt out of even this anonymous data collection by calling TiVo at 877-367-8486. (Replay says IT doesn’t collect aggregate viewing data, but “may collect such information in the future.” It, too, will offer an opt-out method.)"
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/29/technology/circuits/29POGUE-EMAIL.html
Tivo devices tend to be in higher income homes. That alone will skew the results if they are looking for a real cross section. The reality is, the Nielsen ratings are based in fiction. The technology is old and I refuse to believe that Alias is #82 in the entire year rankings. People have poor taste but for good shows to rate so low and lame crap like Raymond rates high? I could give a flying F%$# if they use my viewing habits. I want them to know what I like and what I dont. Better that then let the soccer mom with the Neilsen box next door tell them that we all want to watch the Oxygen Network instead of Monster Garage. As long as personal data isnt exchanged, its to out ultimate benefit.